S’THEMBISO MSOMI | Trump's attitude gives Africa a chance to pave new path to complete independence, sovereignty

Whether US president Donald Trump was joking or not when he said “nobody has ever heard of Lesotho”, the remark reveals a stinking attitude towards not just the Mountain Kingdom, but Africa as a whole.

Of course, it is impossible that nobody in the army of advisers that helped him prepare his first speech to the US Congress had a clue that a country by that name existed. They may not be able to locate the landlocked country on the map, but at least a handful of them will know that it is somewhere closer to the southernmost tip of Africa.

Besides, Trump’s right-hand man and oligarch, Elon Musk, wasn’t only born and raised in SA, one of his companies — internet satellite service Starlink — is currently in the process of acquiring a licence to operate in the very country.

Only last September, it has since transpired, Musk met with Lesotho’s Prime Minister Sam Matekane to explore ways of doing business with the country. Yet Musk probably joined US vice-president JD Vance and other Republicans who giggled and laughed as Trump mocked Lesotho in his speech.

Lesotho’s foreign minister Lejone Mpotjoane reacted with disappointment at Trump’s remarks, especially “given that the US has an embassy here”. He said Trump appeared to be picking on Lesotho because the country was not rich but warned the US may need the country's support in future.

One cannot agree with Mpotjoane more. Trump is a bully and bullies thrive on picking on those they consider “small” and weak. Look at his disgusting treatment of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky during their meeting at the Oval Office last week. The intention of the public humiliation was clear — 'we are a rich country and you are poor, and when we say you are going to accept our deal with Russia about your future without any condition, you are going to listen'.

It is an attitude straight from colonial-era foreign affairs textbooks where the concept of “sovereignty” was not deemed to be deserved by “small” and weak nations. If they treat Zelensky, a leader of a European country regarded as an ally to Western powers, imagine what they think of those from the Global South, Africa especially?

Weeks before the Oval Office saga, we were reminded of how “forgotten” our continent is by the current administration when Musk spoke about how USAid had poured millions of US dollars into a project in Gaza and then speculated that the money may have ended up in the hands of Hamas.

As it later turned out, the Gaza money had gone to, was not in Palestine but Gaza, a province in Mozambique. These astonishing levels of “ignorance” ought not to surprise us. In his previous term as US president, Africa did not feature at all on Trump’s foreign policy radar.

Throughout the four years, he did not visit the continent once and, while many thought he’ll have an opportunity to remedy this when the G20 Summit takes place in SA later this year, all indications are that he’ll give it a miss, feigning outrage over an imaginary mass victimisation of white Afrikaners in this country.

But it is no use lamenting all of this. The question is: What is Africa going to do about it? Since Trump took office, the world has witnessed a dramatic shift in their trade and foreign policies.

We should remember we are not helpless beggars. Africa has a lot to offer that the world is in serious need of – from mineral wealth to human capital.

From Canada to China and India, the whole world is trying to grapple with the realities of a protectionist US that comes with higher trade tariffs and a shake-up of existing agreements. Africa, too, has been at the receiving end, mainly through Trump’s decision to cut aid for such important programmes as the rollout of life-saving antiretroviral drugs to those infected with HIV.

It now looks like merely a matter of time before the US president, with the support of the Republican-dominated Congress, announces the beginning of the end for the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) — through which several African countries were able to export selected products to the lucrative US market duty-free.

Instead of crying over spilt milk, Africa should be exploring ways to navigate itself out of what looks like a crisis. The continent must see the crisis as an opportunity to expand to other markets outside the US while still keeping the door still open for deals with the Americans.

In all of this, we should remember that we are not helpless beggars. Our continent has a lot to offer that the world is in serious need of — from mineral wealth beneath the soil to human capital.

The changing geopolitical situation is also an opportunity to start being serious about intra-continental trade. For too long we have been at the mercy of others when it comes to economic development, trade and donor funding. Here is a gap for us to start chatting a new path to complete independence and sovereignty. That way, all will be forced to know us by our names, whether those names are Lesotho, Djibouti or the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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